Tearful memory of second baby death

On the morning Kathleen Folbigg's second child died, her sister-in-law sat stroking the baby's soft, warm face, willing him to come back to life.

Just before Folbigg had called Carol Newitt telling her: "It's happening again."

Detailing the painful morning of February13, 1991, Mrs Newitt told the NSW Supreme Court that she had rushed to Folbigg's house to find her sitting on the lounge, elbows on her knees, her head down, crying.

Eight-month-old Patrick was in the cot in another room, just lying there, as if he was sleeping.

"He had his little hands alongside his face ... I went to pick him up, and Kathy said, 'No, don't'," Mrs Newitt told the court yesterday.");document.write("

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"I just stood there and stroked his face, talked to him and asked him to come back to us," she explained, convulsing in tears.

Just after that Mrs Newitt's brother, Craig Folbigg, arrived at the house.

"He came through the door at 100 miles an hour, picked him up and tried to revive him," she wept. "He couldn't revive him."

It was the second child the Folbiggs had lost in three years.

Patrick was already partially blind and suffering from epilepsy after an earlier, acute, life-threatening event when he was four months old.

Craig Folbigg sat in the front row of the public gallery yesterday weeping, his head in his hands, as the day his second son died was relived.

Just metres away sat his wife, who is charged with murdering the couple's four children, Caleb, Patrick, Laura and Sarah, and causing grievous bodily harm to Patrick. She, too, pressed a handkerchief to her face.

The Crown Prosecutor, Mark Tedeschi, QC, yesterday questioned Professor John Hilton about two pinpoint abrasions which were found on the third Folbigg child, Sarah, following a post-mortem examination.

He asked Professor Hilton if a pillow with a button on it, a soft toy or an adult's hand with a ring could have caused the abrasions below the child's lower lip.

Professor Hilton said that a child being smothered would generally move very vigorously.

A jewelled ring, he said, would be more likely to cause a scratch. It was highly unlikely the mark could be made by a button or a soft toy, he said.

Completing her evidence yesterday, Mrs Newitt said that after the death of her two sons, Caleb and Patrick, Kathleen Folbigg cried like she was the loneliest person in the world.